A lovingly illustrated poem composed for the silver wedding anniversary of Eveline, née Gassenheimer (1843-1914) and Gyula Juhos (ca. 1837-1917), a landowner and member of an administrative commission in Krassó-Szörény county (now Romania). Written in attractive calligraphy; the talented ink and watercolour drawings mostly show scenes from the life of the married couple. Loosely enclosed is a folded family tree. As stated in the second stanza, the author was a friend of the groom's. - Margins slightly fingerstained, otherwise well preserved. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel. {BN#48970}

Superb, unique manuscript map of China executed towards 1780, during the time of the powerful Qing dynasty, showing the whole extent of the Empire at the height of its power. No bibliography appears to mention our map, which is likely unique and is not known to have been published. It presents a major historical interest because it was drawn during the golden age of the Chinese civilization, when the borders of the Empire were more far-flung than ever. The reigns of Yonghzheng (1723-35) and Qianlong are considered the zenith of power of the Qing Empire, which spread out over more than 13 million square kilometres - a size unmatched in Chinese history before or after. - Qianlong (1711-99), the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty, reigned over China from October 18th, 1735 until February 9th, 1796. His reign is considered the golden age of Chinese civilization, the height of the Qing Dynasty. The Emperor, an ambitious statesman conscious of his duty, expanded the borders of the Chinese Empire towards central Asia. A poet, accomplished painter and master of calligraphy, he promoted the development of Chinese culture across the empire and gathered one of the most important collections of art in the world. He founded the library of the four treasures, Siku Quanshu, so as to establish the largest collection of books in the history of China. This was a period of great territorial expansion and interior stability: under Qianlong, the Chinese Empire grew considerably, particularly in central Asia. Chinese Turkestan was incorporated into the Empire and renamed Xinjiang, while in the west, the valley of Ili was conquered. The magnificently hand-written map is filled with geographical and historical details. The legend indicates the distances from Nagasaki and gives multiple details about each and every Chinese province and the neighbouring countries. It also provides information about the population of the neighbouring countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Java. The artist uses several colours to distinguish the various provinces of China as well as the neighbouring countries. Some elements depicted on the map are of particular interest, such as the clearly delineated Great Wall, from north-east to north-west, and the Gobi Desert, in the north and north-east of the map. Also, the illustration of the mouth of the great Yellow River is noteworthy. This river, the cradle of the Chinese civilization, has been known for changing its course since antiquity. Today, it runs to the Bohai Sea in the north of the Shandong province. On the present map, however, as on other contemporary maps, the mouth of the river is located in the south of the Jiangsu province. Other features shown include the Dongting Lake, in the Hunan province, the most important source of water in China; the sacred mountain of Taoism, Dong Yue Dai Shan, which all Chinese hope to climb one day; Korea and the Yalu River, the border between China and Korea; Japan and the sea of Japan in the north-east; Taiwan; Mongolia in the north; in the south-west, Vietnam, Malaysia, Java, the Philippines. - A red stamp of a previous Asian owner in the lower right corner of the map. The map has a high degree of precision, as 1 cm represents 100 Li (approximately 85 km). A superb and unique manuscript hand-coloured map of China, in perfect condition, revealing the extent of the Chinese Empire in the mid-18th century. {BN#47279}

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Unknown manuscript by a Jesuit about his sojourn in China, bound with two other relations

A unique Chinese-themed sammelband compiled by the librarian of the famous palace-monastery of Mafra, built between 1717 and 1755. Bound between two rare, brief printed reports about the Portuguese missions to China carried out in 1753 and 1755 is an extensive unpublished manuscript that provides a "true relation of the successes of the embassy which King José I of Portugal sent to the Emperor of China in the year of 1752". Closely written in a fine, well-legible secretarial hand, the relation is dated December, 1754 and signed "Luis de Sigueira". Sequeira (1693-1763) was a French Jesuit who came to China in 1726, worked in Hukwang (Hankou) and served later as rector in Macao (cf. Pfister). No publication of his relation could be traced in the National Library of Lisbon or in library catalogues internationally. - Paper of letterpress relations and handwritten title noticeably browned, paper of Sequeira's manuscript unaffected, showing merely some occasional ink bleeding or corrosion in the bolder pen flourishes. Binding rubbed and bumped along extremeties; some chipping to spine. A unique survival with old handwritten library shelfmark "Est. 12.C.4.L.21" to flyleaf. {BN#48754}

The "Historia del Almirante", the story of the life of Christopher Columbus, is said to have been written around 1530 by his son Hernando Colón (1487-1539). The original manuscript is lost. The work was first printed in 1571 in Italian. The 1749 Spanish edition is merely a re-translation (cf. Sabin 14674) and thus contains many departures from the present ms. copy, which is obviously based on the original version. Judging by the style of the tendril initial (strongly rubbed), this ms. probably was created in the mid-16th century. The text begins, "Los rebeldes perseverando en su mal animo el Almirante resolvio enviar contre essos al Prefecto su hermano que con buenas palabras sgredviese a juicio y arrepentimento pero con compania hastante para que si quisiesen onfendere oudiese resistirlos" (the later printed version has: "Perseverando los rebeldes en su mal ánimo y propósito, llegaron hasta un cuarto de legua de los navíos, a un pueblo de indios llamado Maima, donde después edificaron los cristianos una cuidad llamada Sevilla.") - It could not be established whether the illumination on the reverse belongs to the original composition or is a later addition in contemporary style. The image does not fit the text well: it depicts three legendary scenes of the conquest of Brittany by a commander of Charlemagne in 799 (Brittany, personified by a female allegory "Armorica", and Charlemagne ["Karolus Fran(corum) Rex"] as a young ruler in Roman dress). - Margins of text page browned; some rubbing (initial rather strongly rubbed); edges of illumination slightly browned; gilding and colours (especially green) chipped. {BN#18222}

Original typescript of the autobiography of the English geographer and explorer Augustine ("August") Courtauld, published in 1957 as "Man the Ropes". Born into a wealthy Essex family of textile merchants, Courtauld spent typically unhappy school days at Charterhouse (a 1918 anecdote, describing an excessive beating for the waste of bread, precisely mirrors a contemporaneous scene at Gresham's School described by the slightly younger Stephen Spender in his memoirs), his years at Trinity, Cambridge, and especially his expeditions to ice and sand deserts, his voyages, his war service in the Coastal Forces, and his last years as an Essex politician. - Courtauld was dedicated to exploring the world's uncharted deserts, and as early as 1926 had visited Greenland with the great Scottish explorer James Wordie. In 1927/28, he explored the Southern Sahara with the later Lord Rennell, only barely surviving an attack of dysentery. Most famously, Courtauld spent five winter months as solitary keeper of the weather station his expedition had set up on the Greenland ice cap, 110 miles north of Ammassalik, at minus 64 degrees. The "British Arctic Air Route Expedition" of 1930/31, led by Gino Watkins with the plan of finding a short air route to Western Canada, had received material support from Courtauld, whose family helped finance the undertaking. In 1935, Courtauld returned to Greenland, where he was the first to climb Mt. Hvitserk (Gunnbjørns Fjeld), the highest mountain in the arctic at almost 3,700 meters. Courtauld was considered a brilliant navigator, and his numerous cruises took him everywhere from Mallorca to Trondheim (he once took along Evelyn Waugh to Northern France, but Waugh soon defected due to continuing bad weather). With the coming war, Courtauld explored the Northern coast of Norway for the British naval intelligence; against the resistance of the admiralty, he formed the "Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve" and supported the British commando units in Norway. After the war, he attempted a transatlantic voyage to America with his yawl, but was prevented by bad weather. Still, the winter of 1947 was spent in Ian Fleming's Jamaican villa, where his son could recuperate in the Caribbean waters after a severe bout of Polio. In his 49th year, Courtauld himself developed Multiple Sclerosis. At the Zeileis sanitarium in Gallspach near Grieskirchen (Upper Austria), where he spent his last years in treatment, he penned the present memoirs, which he lived to see published. A comparison with the printed text shows that the typescript underwent further editing - probably by the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton. The author's notorious understatement would seem even more pronounced in the ms., confirming the appraisal of his travel companion, Francis Rodd (Lord Rennell): "He was no linguist, but made himself understood." Courtauld died on 3 March 1959 and was buried at sea. Dorothy Middleton recognized the versatile Courtauld as an explorer "who could have been more famous if he had been less modest and (perhaps) less of an individualist" (The Geogr. Journal 146/3 [1980], S. 446). More than two decades after his death, Nicholas Wollaston published the biography, "The Man on the Ice Cap". In the fall of 1959, Courtauld's widow Mollie married Richard Austen ("Rab") Butler of Saffron Walden (1902-82, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary; widower of Courtauld's cousin, Sydney Courtauld Butler) and celebrated her 100th birthday in 2007. - Occasional slight browning; edges somewhat wrinkled. Altogether well-preserved, complete typescript of the autobiography, probably the final draft as revised by the author himself. {BN#20992}

A Viennese woman's extensive diary, covering three decades of personal and political events ranging from the writer's wedding in 1928 and Hitler's triumphal entrance to Vienna in 1938 to the Second World War, Germany's defeat, the Russian occupation, and the later postwar period. Julia Ehmann (née Vesely), wife of the Viennese tobacconist Ferdinand Ehmann, appears as a catholic housekeeper who wholeheartedly subscribes to the most conservative socio-political standards of her time. The diary, her preface reveals, is a gift from her fiancé, who has encouraged her to record in it whatever she encounters in life, and she submits to this task with diligence. The earliest entries recount such events as the birth of their children, the death of their dog, sewing and laundering, and hikes in the Salzburg mountains, but also family tragedies, with frequent reflective passages in which she discusses at length her outlook on life. If her writing betrays a sentimentalist streak which mirrors the penchant of her age for lofty pathos and possibly her own tastes in reading, her strong feelings do not therefore appear less sincere. - The ever-growing political radicalization of the later 1930s soon leaves its mark upon the diary, and Ehmann ventures to have discovered the reason for the upheavals of her times: "Die Gottlosigkeit die mehr denn je über Hand nimmt, die überaus durch harte Dogmen kämpfende Kirche, die Herrschsucht des unterdrückenden Judentums, die Ungleichheiten der Nationen, die Bekämpfung des Nationalismus durch den Kommunismus, die Gottlosen mit den Gläubigen, alle die Reaktionen dieser dich kämpfenden Mitmenschen beeinträchtigen die Ruhe des Volkes" (9 Sept. 1937). She is deeply impressed with the Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whose speech at the Vienna Konzerthaus she attends, noting admiringly: "Leni Riefenstahl die kraftvolle Mitschöpferin der deutschen Filmkunst erlebte ich gestern im Konzerthaus! [...] ein Bild von Schönheit & Anmut, ein Bild von Entschlossenheit & Energie, ein Bild von unsagbarem Reiz. - So stand sie gestern vor mir [...]" (28 April 1938). Indeed, many of Ehmann's entries display her unreserved enthusiasm for National Socialism, though she seems belatedly to have self-censored her starkest comments. About the "Anschluss", she notes on 15 March 1938: "Triumph und Sieg Adolf Hitlers! Wie rasch wendet sich das Zeitenrad! Wann hat ein Kaiser o. König solchen Triumph ge[...]" (the following five leaves have been cut out), and again on 1 Oct. 1938: "Ich denke zurück an die prachtvollen Tage des Reichsparteitages in Nürnberg welche wir vom 5.-12. Sept. 38 [...] (here, two leaves have been excised). As the war draws near, she expresses joy over the German victories: "Deutschland erlebt den Sieg! Böhmen und Mähren stehen unter dem Protektorat, unter dem Schutze Deutschlands, am 15. d. zog der Führer mit seinen Truppen in Prag ein, dieser ältesten Universitätsstädt, bezog den Hradschin und löste die jüdisch kommunistische Regierung, die unter dem Drucke Rußlands stand [...]" (21 March 1939). During the war years she describes shopping for groceries with ration stamps and the role of women in times of war as well as the education of her daughters in the "Bund deutscher Mädl". She records news about the progress of the war, but also describes the deportation of the Viennese Jews, to which she is a witness: "Alle Juden verlassen Wien, es ist ein Aufgebot unseres Wiener Reichsstatthalter Baldur v. Schirachs, Wien Judenfrei zu machen. Es drängen von allen Windrichtungen Volksdeutsche ins deutsche Land. Es ist eine große Umsiedlung wie sie in der Geschichte niemals vorkam" (12 March 1941). She loses her flat in the air raids on Vienna in the spring of 1945, but tries to persevere with her family in the shelter of the cellars: "Belagerung Wiens durch die Russen - Bomben Artilerie [!] Maschinengewehr Feuer und Maschinen über unsere Dächer in unseren Straßen. Am 22. IV. verlor ich meine Wohnung durch den Luftterror, heute sitzen wir mit starken Nerven im Keller, Tag [und] Nacht und warten entweder auf den Tod o. das Leben. Wie der oberste Herr entscheidet" (9 April 1945). While she describes the chaos and sufferings of the immediate postwar period, her diary entries grow less frequent in the early 1950s. She notes the reopening of the Vienna opera house in 1955, but we find no mention of the Austrian State Treaty of the same year. Her husband has lost his eyesight and retreated into inwardness, and with bitter sorrow she records her loneliness. - A woman's remarkable account of Vienna in the years before, during, and after the War, and a record of the early enthusiasm and later the utter despair of the Austrian population. Very well preserved. {BN#47127}

Calligraphically appealing 16th century manuscript on the art and terminology of hunting and falconry, written by a professional scribe for an unidentified sponsor, though likely for a highly placed personage or member of the nobility in South-Western Germany. The manuscript contains contemporary extracts from the end of the third part of Noe Meurer's "Von Forstlicher Oberherrlichkeit und Gerechtigkeit", an important study of hunting first published in Pforzheim by Georg Rab in 1560, and then, in expanded form, in Frankfurt, by Georg Rab & Weigand Han, in 1561. Meurer (born ca. 1525 in Memmingen in Southern Swabia, died in Heidelberg in 1583) was one the first German legal scholars to write in his native tongue rather than in Latin; among his works are treatises on the law of inheritance and of water. In particular, he was the first German author to publish monographs on the subjects of forestry and hunting, not as mere chapters within the larger framework of agriculture, for which reason he was of great importance for the study of forestry in the 16th century. The present extracts comprise the only parts of Meurer's book concerned with the practical, technical aspects of hunting, rather than with its legal foundations. They include sections on hounds, canned and net hunting, the hunting of stags, roes, boars, foxes, rabbits, bears, wolves, ibexes and chamois, as well as a section on how to tell a deer from a roe when viewing the animal from the rear. The final part is dedicated to hunting with falcons and hawks. The entire section on deer ("Die Hürsch zu suchen, wie auch der Hürsch für der Hinndin zue erkennen etc.") is not part of the first edition of Meurer's book, suggesting that the scribe based his work on the second edition of 1561 (leaves LXXXIIII verso to XCVII verso). Yet the order of the individual sections does not follow the published book in all particulars, and the present arrangement would seem to reflect the scribal editor's or the sponsor's private considerations. - The paper stock for this manuscript is from a paper mill in Meurer's native Memmingen (watermark: Gothic letter "P" - or more likely "Q" - with the arms of Memmingen: Briquet III, no. 8750 and p. 468; cf. Briquet I, p. 72; specimens dating from the late 1580s to 1590s). - Very well preserved and legible, untrimmed manuscript from the collection of the Swiss-born German merchant and entrepreneur Hans Dedi (1918-2016), chairman of the "Quelle" mail order concern and the Schickedanz business group, with his bookplate in the marbled solander case and his gilt signet on the spine. {BN#48368}

¶ Cf. VD 16, M 5017.

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Spectacular late 18th-century Italian manuscript on fireworks, illustrated throughout

Spectacularly illustrated manuscript describing and illustrating many moveable and rotating pyrotechnical units and machines, including rockets. The title-page, bearing the name of a former owner (Valentino Vieri, who probably also added some probationes pennae), is followed by a description of the first 62 coloured drawings, beginning with the "Giuoco della Luna e Sole" (games of moon and sun), including all sorts of revolving, spouting, exploding and firing units, rockets, and other gadgets: On fol. 20r three objects are illuminated: an aloe vase, a tree, and a coat of arms, inscribed "Dini". Fols. 20v-23r show full-page installations, including a "Colona Trionfante" with a winged angel on top, a Lion of St. Mark, the symbol of the free Republic of Venice, holding an open book with his right paw (displaying the text "Pax tibi Marce Evangelista meus"), an oval on top of a balustrade, bearing the text "W. Gesu Giuseppe e Maria", a "Piramicia Egiziana", and a cupola with lanterns and fire pots. Fols. 23v-25r contains two double-page war scenes: the first, a fortified castle by a coast, with a vessel and a galley at sea; the second, a fortified tower and an army camp with tents opposite, with symbols of war and military equipment in the foreground. The final fols. 25v-36v contain indexes and instructions for fireworks: (1) "Indice delli Giuochi di Fuocho" (the various units and rockets; fols. 25v-26v); (2) "Regole Generali": 84 numbered instructions for construction and operation of fireworks (fols. 27r-35r); (3) "Indice delle Misture" (fols. 35v-36r); and "Catalogo de Generi ed Utensili" (fol. 36v). - There may be a connection between this manuscript and the Papal Master of Ceremonies Msgr. Giuseppe Dini (d. 1799). The Library of the Getty Research Centre possesses a ms. written by Dini ("Relazione o sia diario di tutto quelle che e stato osservato in Roma nelle venuta del Re delle due Sicilie Ferdinando IV e la Regina Maria Carolina Arciduchessa d'Austria", 1791) containing biographical and historical notes, including descriptions of the preparations for the royal visit with details about the route, the number of soldiers guarding the visitors, and the costs of the entertainment (including operatic performances and fireworks). At the back of that manuscript are printed announcements of the firework display and official appearances by Pope Pius VI. - In 1782 Dini - as that Pope's Master of Ceremonies - published a diary of the Papal journey, via Venice, to Vienna (undertaken with an aim to mitigate the social and ecclesiastical reforms enacted by Emperor Joseph II). Perhaps the ms. with its explicit references to the Republic of Venice can be connected with this 1782 journey (a German edition, "Vollständiges Tagebuch von der Reise des Pabsts Pius VI. nach Wien", appeared in Breslau in 1783). Another possibility is a connection with the election of the new Pope Pius VII in March 1800 in Venice, after a very difficult conclave in Venice that began in December 1799, soon after the death of Pius VI and just before the death of Dini on 2 November 1799. - Spine slightly damaged; some browning. In good condition. {BN#28367}

Splendidly illuminated prayer book owned by noble women for several generations; a masterpiece of the Augsburg school of early Renaissance book illustration, containing eleven full-page miniatures of uncommon quality. A fine example of a time of theological change in Southern Germany, the seven-part volume comprises Marian devotions as well as Oecolampadius's German mass ("zu Hayl allen Evangelischen"), liturgical prayers and specimens of the 'ars moriendi': "Die sibenn Zeytt von unser lieben Frauen" (2r), "Die anderthalb hundert Verß die der Herr Jhesus an dem Stam des heiligen Crutz gesprochen hatt" (87r), "Das Testament Jhesu Christi: das man byßher genent hat die Meß vertutscht durch Johannem Oecolampadion" (106r; printed in 1523: cf. Staehelin 85ff.), "Ein schöns Gebet wie der Mensch im selbs ein Testament und ein löblich Gemecht bey seiner Vermüglichait zwischen Gott und im machen soll, so stirbt er desto sicherer" (127r, with invocations of the Saints on 133v-134r, including St Uncumber), "Das Gebet soltu anheben zu sprechen wan d' Briester das Sanctus spricht" (147r), "Ain gutter Segen für aines yeden Menschen guten unnd getruwen gemahet zebitten" (149r), and "Ein offne Peicht und Protestation das ein Mensch cristenlich beger zu leben und zu sterben" (153r). From the beginning the prayer book was intended for a noble lady: a miniature on fol. 152v shows a portrait of the kneeling sponsor of the book with a banner "Exaudi queso [...] domine supplicum preces [...]", and another on fol. 126v shows two women kneeling in prayer before an epiphany of Christ, including the sponsor with the banner "Miserere deu[s] anime famuli tue et". The other miniatures show the Annunciation (1v), Nativity (35r), Annunciation to the Shepherds (42v), Adoration (47r), Circumcision (51r), Flight into Egypt (55r), Coronation of the Virgin (63v), and the Crucifixion (86v). The vivid and highly detailed, realistic borders show cherubs as well as hunting motifs: stags, deer, a leopard, hare, hedgehog, fox, weasel, dogs, birds (storks, geese, ducks, partridges, peacocks and numerous smaller fowl), butterflys and flowers of all kind, revealing the strong influence of contemporary Flemish book art, frequently encountered in the Augsburg art of the early 16th century, such as in the work of the Petrarch Master. The initials "KW" are on the deer's white hindquarters in the border of fol. 42r; the date is written on the door lintel in the Adoration miniature. - Provenance: the prayer book was passed on from mother to daughter throughout at least three generations, thus always remaining in the possession of noble women: Anna Maria countess Fürstenberg (1562-1611) married Christoph of Waldburg zu Trauchburg (1551-1612) in 1577; her ownership is written on fol. 86r: "Anna Maria Erbtruchsessin Freifrau Walpurg. G. G. zu Fürstenberg" (dated 1594). Her daughter Walburga Eusebia von Waldburg zu Trauchburg (1595-1671) entered her ownership on 17 April 1620, together with her husband Johann Wilhelm count Königsegg zu Aulendorf (d. 1663), on fol. 152r. In 1647 the book was then passed on to her daughter Maria Anna Eusebia Baroness Königsegg zu Aulendorf (1627-56), who in 1655 married Johann VI count Montfort (her autograph, dated ownership is at the bottom of the same page). In 1855 the volume was auctioned by Weigel in Leipzig ("Verzeichnis der Bibliotheken des Herrn Kränner in Regensburg", lot no. 25b); in 1890 it was in the library of the Prussian army physician Dr. Laeuterer (cf. his handwritten ownership on fol. 125v). In November 1975 it was offered for auction at Hartung & Karl's sale 14 in Munich (lot no. 9) but remained unsold. It was described in Ulrich Merkl's 1999 monograph on Bavarian book illustration during the first half of the 16th century, citing it as privately owned (pictured on p. 214). - Some traces of use, variously stained throughout with occasional slight abrasions (a few miniatures rubbed more strongly than others, but altogether very well preserved). Trimmed during re-binding in the 19th century, though preserving comparatively wide margins and only closely trimming a few borders near the upper edge. The binding in the Romantic style is very lightly rubbed at three extremeties. {BN#47688}

Elegantly disposed manuscript list of a series of princes and principalities in the Holy Roman Empire, written in a fine late 16th-century italic hand, supplemented by a contemporary hand. - Curious list of names of places and potentates in 'Germany' (actually, within the Holy Roman Empire, since the Duke of Lorraine and the Count of Savoy are included), enumerating every class by fours - e.g. four dukes, four landgraves, four cities, four vicars etc. Evidently either a jeu d'esprit or perhaps for a literary purpose, the piece is without any identification. Including the additions in another hand, there are 12 groups of four in all (a total of 48), enough for a deck of playing cards. In addition, the second hand has inserted digits from 1 to 12 randomly beside each group. Could this be the plan for a proposed pictorial set of cards? - Slightly browned and with small damages to edges. {BN#25434}

A manuscript written in a single, unidentified hand during the last years of the 18th century, describing Gleyo's imprisonment in Ching-Tou, then Yuin-Tchang. - J.-F. Gleyo was born in Saint-Brieuc, the son of master mariner François Gleyo, and became a Priest of St. Sulpice. He sailed from Lorient to China in 1764, first arriving in Macao, where he learned Chinese and became associated with the evangelical work of the missionary Alary. In 1769 he was denounced and accused of links with the Pélén-Kiao rebels. Imprisoned and abused for several years, he owed his survival to his faith and mystical visions. He was released in 1777 after a Portuguese Jesuit mathematician intervened with the Emperor and resumed his apostolic labours. In his General History of the Foreign Missions, Launay states of Gleyo that "he recalls the great contemplatives, the most intrepid apostles, saints, and other confessors of the faith." The present manuscript recounts his encarceration and the consolations he received from heaven. It is sprinkled with Latin sentences and Chinese terms (especially in his letters written to Jean-Martin Moÿe after his release, included as a final section at the end of the second volume, with separate page numbers). The letters were published in the famous Jesuit collection of "Lettres édifiantes et curieuses". The original manuscript is kept in the Archives des Séminaires des Missions Étrangères, and a copy by various hands exists in the library of the Seminary of St. Sulpice; it is very likely that the present manuscript was copied from one of these sources. It is not listed in the catalogue of Manuscripts in the National Library and is thus of the utmost rarity. - Provenance: from the library of Jean R. Perrette with his bookplate on the pastedown. {BN#45762}

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Collection of documents on the War on Mantuan Succession, signed by the Emperor

A collection of copies of Habsburgian documents relating to the Gonzaga family and the War of the Mantuan Succession, compiled by the Imperial Registry and signed by the Emperor, Ferdinand III. The ensemble, which comprises documents by Frederick III, Maximilian I, Charles V, Maximilian II, Rudolf II, Matthias, Ferdinand II, etc., was probably drawn up for Duke Ferrante III Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla (1618-78), to record and secure his claims upon the Duchy of Mantua (claims which lay in the interest of the Imperial family), whereas the War of Succession had ended a few years previously with Mantua becoming part of the French sphere of influence. - The Gonzaga family had ruled Mantua since 1328; in 1530, Federico II Gonzaga assumed the title of a Duke of Mantua. Upon gaining control over the counties of Monferrato and Guastalla in the mid-16th century, the family reached their apogee of political, financial, and cultural importance. When Francesco IV Gonzaga died in 1612 without leaving a male successor, he was succeeded by his brothers Ferdinando and Vincenzo, both cardinals without children. Upon the death of Vincenzo II Gonzaga in 1627 the direct male line of the House of Gonzaga became extinct, causing a war of succession. Emperor Ferdinand II, husband of Eleanor Gonzaga, Vincenzo's sister, sought to re-attach the Duchy of Mantua to the Holy Roman Empire by transferring it to the Spanish-Imperial line of Gonzaga-Guastalla. This objective was opposed by the older line of Gonzaga of Nevers and Rethel, supported by France. The conflict ended when Sweden entered the Thirty Years' War and Ferdinand required his troops in the principal theatre of combat. The Duke of Nevers and Rethel became lord of the devastated and depopulated counties of Mantua and Monferrato, and France gained a foothold in Upper Italy. (Three quarters of a century later, however, the Imperial cause was to triumph after all: in 1708, the War of Spanish Succession re-attached Mantua to the Empire, while the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato sided with France.) - The present compilation is intended to document the legal succession of the House of Gonzaga-Guastalla on the basis of archival sources; this goal is underscored by the Imperial arms on the upper cover (double-headed eagle with quartered escutcheon showing the fesses of Gonzaga and the Bohemian lion, bordered by a tendril desgin enclosing the four evangelists) and Guastalla's lion rampant within a crowned shield on the back cover. The documents repeatedly invoke the feudal righty of the House of Gonzaga-Guastalla, especially in the areas of Castiglione delle Stiviere and Castel Goffredo: "Ad perpetuam rei memoriam recognoscimus, ac postum facimus tenore praesentium universis, quod cum nobis submissime exponendum curavit. Illustris Ferdinandus Gonsaga, Priceps Castilionis à Stiveriis, Consanguineus et Princeps Noster charissimus, quem ad modum maiores olim sui ab Augustissimis Romanorum Imperatoribus & Regibus Praedecessoribus Nostris sacratissime recordationis super Marchionatu Castilionis à Stiverys, & Castro Guiffredi cum omnibus suis pertinentys investiti. Pater verò suus quondam Franciscus Gonsaga de eodem Marchionatu Castilionis et permutatione Castri Giuffredi [...] Matthias Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus [...] agnoscimus & notum facimus tenore praesentium universis. Quod cum Illustris Franciscus Gonsaga Princeps Castilioni à Stiverys, consanguineus et princeps noster charissimus, demisse Nobis esponi curavit, non tantum Maiores suos, verum etiam se ipsum à Predecessoribus Nostris Divis Romanorum Imperatoribus & Regibus praeclarissimae memoriae de Marchionatu Castilioni à Stiverys, et de Castro, et Terra Castri Guiffredi cum omnibus suis pertinentys investium, alijsque insignibus privilegys ornatum fuisse [...]". Signed at the end by Emperor Ferdinand III, with counter-signatures by the Aulic Councillors Conrad Hiltprandt and Johann Walderode. {BN#21943}